54 PLANT BKEEDING. 



year. A nursery centgener plot is planted the third year from 

 the seeds of each strong plant of the second year, and several of 

 the best yielding plants of each promising tyj)e are saved for mothers 

 and mixed together, to be used as nursery stocks, planted in a large 

 nursery plot the fourth year, and treated in centgener and field trials 

 as described on pages 44 to 49. 



Method No. S. — All the seeds of a hybrid between two stocks, or 

 plants, or spikes, as tlie case may be, are planted in a nursery plot 

 the second year, and the resulting crop of seeds is mixed together 

 and planted in drills or broadcast the third year, and again the fourth 

 year. By this time the ' ' reactions " have mostly developed. The 

 fifth year 2,500 hills, 4 by 4 inches apart, are planted, and thinned to 

 one plant in a hill. These plants are then used the same as founda- 

 tion stocks of standard wheats, as stated on page 44, the hybridizing 

 ha^dng given wider variation, increasing the opportunity to select 

 superior mother plants. 



Method No. 3 seems the most simple and the most comprehensive. 

 It may be wise in many cases to mix together two or more closely 

 related nursery stocks for use in the field tests and later used by 

 farmers, avoiding any possible danger of founding a variety upon the 

 blood of a single mother plant. 



EXPERIMENTS IN WHEAT BREEDING. 



The actual formation of superior varieties, which at an earh^ date 

 will "make two blades of grass grow where one grew before," is of 

 immense value, but of immeasurable importance would be the fullest 

 knowledge of how best to breed into each and every species of useful 

 plants- and of animals those qualities which make them more useful 

 in supporting and giving pleasure to humanity. Enumerating some 

 of the lines of experimenting on the theory of wheat breeding in 

 progress at the Minnesota experiment station may suggest similar 

 studies by other experimenters with the various plants upon which 

 the respective States depend for a large proportion of our country's 

 wealth. The numbers at the left refer only to the station records. 

 The statements in parentheses under the respective experiments are 

 brief statements of results to date: 



IV. 2, Seeds compared from heavy vs. light- yielding spikes. 



(Results to date show that the breeder should choose the heavy- yielding 

 spikes as well as heavy-yielding plants. ) 

 IV. 8. How to select wheat plants for greater ability to stand erect. 



(The centgener plan of experimenting is aiding in the solution of this 

 important problem. The tendency in the blood of a mother plant to beget 

 a race with stiff straw can not well be judged with the single plant, but it 

 can with the small plot of a hundred or more of the progeny.) 

 IV. 4. Methods of developing earliness. 



(By hybridizing and using centgener plot selection.) 



